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Australian researchers believe they are on the verge of developing a vaccine for malaria, which could save the lives of millions.

Researchers at Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics have been able to induce malaria immunity in animals and are now moving onto first-stage human trials.

Around half the world’s population still lives with the deadly threat of malaria, despite advances in treatment and prevention. Researcher Dr Danielle Stanisic from Griffith University says a malaria vaccine would massively improve public health worldwide.

“The results that we’ve seen in our rodent models are very promising and very exciting. We see complete protection against multiple strains and species of malaria.”

The new study introduced a holistic approach by working with an immune response to the whole malaria parasite, compared to previous studies that only focused on individual antigens on the parasite or the infected red blood cells.

Development of the vaccine is subject to further testing and it will be at least six years before it is widely available.